Magnetic separation.



No. 653,346. Patented July :0, m0.

' E. GATES.

MAGNETIC SEPARATION.

(Application filed Dec. 2, 1899.

(No Model.) 2 SheetsSheet I,

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E. GATES MAGNET|C--$EPARATIUN.

v (Application filed Duo. 2, 1899.) (No Model.)

Patented July [0, woo;

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NITED STA S PATENT OFFICE.

ELMER GATES, OF CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR TO THEODORE J. MAYER, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

MAGNETIC SEPARATION.

SPECIFICATION forming part (if Letters mat No. 653,346, dated July 10, 1900. Application filed Decemberh, 1899 Serial No. 739,009. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELMER GATES, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chevy Chase, in the county of Montgomery, State of Maryland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Magnetic Separation; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to the separation of metallic substances from granular mixtures containing them, and is more particularly concerned with the separation of gold, silver, copper, or such other metals as have normally so feeble a magnetic susceptibility as not to be ordinarily considered magnetic at all; and it consists in passing a current of electricity through a flying or fallingbody of granular materials containing such substances in a freely-movable condition, and thereby making the mixture itself a conductor for the current, and While so conducting the current to introduce the mixture into or pass it through another field of magnetic intensity, the result of which is that the particles of better conductivity are attracted or repelled by the infiuence of the auxiliary field of magnetism and caused to move out of the path or trajectory of the non-metallic constituents of the mixture, so as to be capable of being separately received and collected.

I have discovered that it is feasible to make a continuous stream of flying or falling granular materials the conductor of an. electric current when the voltage of the current is substantially sufficient to are the sum of the distances between the conducting particles in ing in proximity to the falling mixture, and Fig. 2 is a similar view where an electromagnet is'substituted for the auxiliary current of the first figure and furnishes the field of magnetic intensity.

Referring to the first figure, A is an elevated feed-hopper of any usual or preferred construction, and b is a receptacle located below it and in the same vertical plane. C C denote ordinary carbons,such as are employed in arclan1ps. These carbons are located the one in the feed-hopper and the other in the receptacle 6. A current of electricity is passed between the carbons, and the distance apart of the hopper A and receptacle 1) is so proportioned to the voltage of the current, substantially as above explained. The stream of falling material thus becomes a conductor for the current passing between the carbons, and the natural tendency of the whole mixture is to fall into the receptacle 1), below the feed-hopper A. B denotes a conductor arranged in proximity to and substantially parallel with the path of the falling material, and another current is generated in this conductor from a suitable source D and preferably passed therethrough in the opposite direction to the falling material and in opposition to the current passing between the carbons C C. There is thus established an auxiliary field of magnetic intensity, and the two currents (the one passing between the carbons and the one in the conductor B) act upon each other according to certain well-known laws of magnetic attraction and repulsion, and the metallic particles in the primary field of force of those included in the stream of falling materials forming the conductor for the current passing between the carbons partake of the repellent action of the auxiliary field of force derived from the second currentpassing through the conductor B. These metallic particles are therefore deflected out of the trajectory of the falling stream and separately received and conducted away as heads by .a receptacle or, located immediately adjacent to'and on the'side of the receptacle 1), away from the conductor B. The non-pnetallic particles in the stream of the falling mixture are, however, not affected by the auxiliaryfield of force and fall straight down- Ward as tailings into the central receptacle b. On the opposite side of the receptacle. 1) from the receptacle a or on the side of the path of the falling material nearest the conductor B there may be arranged another receptacle 0, similar in all respects to the receptacle a. As illustrated in the drawings directions and therefore repel each other, and the freely-movable metallic particles in the stream of falling materials partake of this repellent action; but the current in the conductor may be reversed in direction, in which case it will pass in the same direction as the course of the current in falling materials. In this case the two currents attract as that of the conductor B, and the direction of the current passing through the windings of the magnet determines whether the proces's of separation is carried .on by magnetic herein, the two currents pass in opposite attraction or repulsion.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is- The method of separating from a mixture,

particles of conductive material which con- 'sists in passing an electric current through a moving body of the mixture, and diverting the conducting particles by causing the moving mixture to pass through an auxiliary field of force, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses;

ELMER GATES. Witnesses:

J. A. GOLDSBOROUGH, EDWIN S. CLARKSON. 

